Yes, I always cheer when a predator is munching a foe and sometimes I cry when they take my friends (I am reminded of the time when the great owls arrived after an ice storm and hung out for the winter--I was thrilled with the progress they made addressing the rabbit burden, but none too thrilled that farm-cat was also on the menu. And the cats are such killers in their own right! Eat or be eaten...)
The mantises laid their egg globs in the agastache last year...prime hunting grounds for all kinds. I like when they eat grasshoppers
(I don't have feeders per se --mostly, I am too irresponsible to maintain them and that ain't right
but also I don't want to chum anything in for the killer cats. So I just grow stuff, lots of stuff, all over, and the critters forage as they may. I have been known to fill the trees with stalks of seedheads for the birds in the winter, in the backyard, with the dogs, to guard them from the cats
)
CritterG--do you have some asters? That's another great 'weed' to see about adding if you don't (they are not all pink)
really cute longhorn bee, Melissodes of some kind
really furry pollen baskets
and a different kind of Melissodes, with shorter 'horns' and and pronounced yellow stripes
and just look at that pollen carrying capacity
The honey bees were in on it too
On the diversity note: I hear ya and I know the bees get all the press and that there are serious problems for many species with habitat loss and pesticide use all over--
In my little corner of the world, though, thankfully, we aren't seeing that--I'm actually seeing more diversity. Maybe because I'm looking for it to be missing I'm seeing it more...or maybe there is more than there has been? At any rate, there is certainly more in my yard than there was when I moved in!
